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Comment by adamsvystun | Hacker News Reader

> Despite the impending release, an executive (it was Patrick) posed to us: what would you build if you had the time to do it the way you wish you could?

Funny how CEO of Stripe is still participating in such (seemingly) low level decisions. Can't imagine that CEO of Ford for example would participate in new site design and development.

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Maybe that's because Ford makes cars.

And we saw what happened when a car company let someone spend company time and resources to build their ideal car [0].

[0] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Pw9gaEiQAxY/hqdefault.jpg

Actually, Ford also tried to build an ideal car in the 50's. Edsel is now known as a "popular symbol for a commercial failure."[1]

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel

That’s what The Simpsons episode is about.

Effective CEOs very often micromanage details of their company's core product. The most famous was of course Steve Jobs. Here is a quote from former Disney CEO Bob Iger showing that he gives creative feedback on their flagship properties: “I’ve probably seen each episode of The Mandalorian three times,” Iger says. “First, to give some notes. Second, to see the rough cut and the impact of the notes. And now, just recently, I watched all the final cuts so that I could be blown away by how it looks.”

Actually, this happens more often than it should. Sometimes high-level execs have a certain hobby horse they care about; a certain idea they want to push through. Company websites are a prime example because they have high visibility, and their importance tends to be overrated internally.

The problem with this is that those execs often don't have expertise in building these things and end up causing more frustration to the people supposed to do the job rather than being helpful. It is some form of micromanagement.

Their business is 100% online, so a front page of their website is likely a big deal for them.

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